NFC East Notes: Cowboys, Eagles, Giants

Cowboys

According to former Seahawks DE Cliff Avril, everyone on the team was well aware of the fact S Earl Thomas was a huge fan of the Cowboys.

“Everyone in (the Seahawks) locker room knows Earl loves the Cowboys,” Avril said in an interview with Sirus XM NFL Radio. “He’d leave immediately after work just to catch them play MNF. We didn’t take it too serious. Whatever team he dresses up for he’s gonna do his thing.”

Eagles

Eagles WR Shelton Gibson was a standout player for Philadelphia during their offseason program. Gibson explained that a conversation with fellow WR Nelson Agholor helped him focus on doing what he can to take the next step.

“He asked me a couple of weeks ago, when we first came back, if I’m doing everything I can do to be great,” Gibson said, via MCall.com. “I told him, ‘no.’ He told me from this day forward, don’t let that be the thing.

“So I started coming in early with him, me and Greg Ward. And ever since then, I’ve been progressing, progressing, progressing. Now it’s just like a routine thing, coming in early and doing everything I can.”

Giants

According to new Giants DC James Bettcher, third-round DL B.J. Hill is “really coming along” and worked exclusively with the first-team defense this offseason.

“From a young guys’ standpoint, I think B.J.’s (Hill) really coming along,” Bettcher said, via NJ.com. “I’m really excited with where he’s at right now. Again, another guy excited to get his pads on, excited to see how we play in the run game when we get to training camp and have some padded practices. We know it’s going to start with the run game and if we’re going to be good in the run game, it’s going to start with those interior guys up front.”

Bettcher added that they viewed Hill as a potential three-down player when they selected him.

“One of the things when we drafted B.J.,” Bettcher said. “What was part of us selecting him was because we thought he has a potential to be a three-down player. Whether that’s a middle push guy, whether that’s a guy that can beat some guards and create some disruption for either edge players, or edge pressure guys.

“Dalvin [Tomlinson] is the same kind of player. Has some slipperiness to him, has the ability to get on edges. Excited to get to – again, I keep saying that, but I’m anxious to get to training camp to really see where some of that’s at. But I do expect those guys to be able to help us.”